MotoGP to Hold Official Test in Argentina; South American Nation Returning to Calendar for 2014

Dorna Sports announced there will be a MotoGP test at Argentina’s Circuito Internacional Termas de Rio Hondo in July to allow teams to prepare for the track’s expected addition to the 2014 MotoGP calendar.

Argentina was actually supposed to join the MotoGP tour this season, but the round was scrapped because of a dispute between the country and Spain after the Argentine government seized control of a Repsol subsidiary. Repsol is, of course, a prominent sponsor of several teams including Honda‘s factory team.

A number of teams will take part in the test, which will take place July 1-5 following the TT Assen in the Netherlands. Dorna has not said which teams will take part in the test, only stating representatives of Ducati, Honda and Yamaha will be taking part. MotoMatters however reports the Repsol Honda factory team, the LCR Honda team as well as the factory Yamaha team will not be present.

For Honda, this probably was to be expected considering the tensions between Argentina and Repsol. MotoMatters reports however the decision was compensate for an advantage those three teams had with their pre-season test at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas in March.